


The word

by TheHSPlayer



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Angst, Emotional Manipulation, Fluff, M/M, Nameless Characters, Peer-pressure, Sci-fi concepts, Slurs, hi-skool
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:47:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23984044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheHSPlayer/pseuds/TheHSPlayer
Summary: Zim hated hi-skool. But mostly, he hated Dib's friends.
Relationships: Dib/Zim (Invader Zim)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 70





	The word

**Author's Note:**

> No beta, just a little fic I made recently :) Thanks for all the support of the people who read it in advance.

Zim hated hi-skool. But mostly, he hated Dib's friends.

No, not friends, Dib said. They were... admirers. Leeches, that's the word he used.

It was a new building, closer to his home, and belonging to the Membrane brand. The best of the best. Uniforms and expensive cars parking in and out. Pristine white walls and the big ML logo in the front. 

Dib, of course, had been trained for the last few years to be the image of the building. His poster boy’s smile holding up beakers with labels as "the future is today". Finally getting his recognition for his father's money.

Zim, on the other hand, had to stay in the public schooling system, where kids walked to their classes instead of taking extraordinarily modern trolleys inside the building. His table was falling apart and was not a big tablet to write and read. His classes were dull and long, not dynamic and entertaining as Dib's.

Why did he continue there, though? He was an invader, he could do anything, and he didn't need a hi-skool degree. 

Well, the reason was rather simple. He wasn't an invader. He was defective, exiled with nothing to do, and he couldn't enter the Membrane Hi-skool. He had tried, several times. He had tried passing exams and breaking in. He tried faking papers and pretending he was a student all along. 

Finally, Dib had told him not to enter. Which was... so very strange, because they spent all their free time together. They practically lived together at this point. Dib would mate with him, leave him recharging and then walk with him back to skool where they separated a few blocks before arriving in opposite directions. That's when Zim would see the leeches swarming around Dib. 

Cheer-leaders holding his arms, and other males discussing sports that Zim knew Dib did not watch. They all got far, far away where he couldn't follow, and it gave him a bad feeling in his spooch that he couldn't quite name. 

Back again, why did Zim continue going to skool, given that he was alone with a bunch of new classmates he didn't know, and lots of teacher drones he never heard? 

Because of lunch time. 

During lunch, he was allowed some happiness. He could go out to the parking lot, pretending he would eat his prep meal, but instead he would be grabbed to a side by a familiar hand, and pulled into a breathtaking kiss. It was a full 40 minutes of kissing. 

It was incredible, and sweet. It made him feel his spooch swirl and beat double time. It made him gasp and smooch, and nuzzle, and whisper nothings to a familiar mouth.

Lately Dib had been smelling differently, and his lips had a whiff of strawberry, slightly glossy for some reason. Zim interpreted it was a way for his mate to please him more. Dib would look brighter. His smile seemed honest and bigger. They both liked this clandestine moment, and Zim adored undoing his tie and ruffling his hair until they were both laughing.

“Don't do that, I have to go back soon, and..." 

"I'm telling you! I saw him grabbing a kid around here!" 

One of the leeches' voices was heard from a side, and Dib froze in place, his hands both separating from ZIm and keeping around him like an aura, ready for action. 

"Dib? With a kid?" a female voice asked.

"I don't know, it was short and green... I saw them around here... maybe he would be punching the little freak" 

"Typical Dib" she giggled.

"Who do they call a f-----hhhh!!!" Zim's mouth was suddenly covered by Dib's hand, and he trashed, confused and startled by the nerve of his mate when he pulled him away from the line of sight of the leeches,and brought him to a dirty place full of trash containers. 

"Zim, please... don't scream, okay? I just... I need this, I need to finish hi-skool, and just get my dad off my back. Please... they are just being jerks, don't react." 

It was a pleading beyond desperation, and Zim couldn't bring himself to betray the request he was asked.

He crossed his arms, wrinkling his face. 

"Fine. Zim won't rearrange the leeches' organs" 

"Thank you, you're the best. Now stay here, I'll leave first. Don't come out until I leave"

He pecked his lips, and jogged out, exchanging some words with the others, making them laugh with a stupid joke, and loudly comment on the wretched status of the building they were at. 

Zim approached, cautious to them, and that's when he heard. 

"Hey man, Ben saw you around with a kid this school. What's the deal with it?" 

"Just an old friend." 

"Really? Ben said you looked kind of..." he made a gesture that Zim couldn't catch from his place. 

"I'm not a fag, don't be ridiculous" Dib said, and his cheer-leader companion giggled, kissing Dib's cheek amicably. 

That's when Zim heard the word for the first time. 

**

When he came back to his base, he looked for the word. 

He saw a bunch of twigs tied together with a string, and he couldn't make sense of it. It was... abstract. Dib said he wasn't that. And no, he wasn't, the thing was not organic. But Zim thought it was something else, different. He didn't like the word, whichever it was.

**

The second time he heard it was far less casual. He was walking to hi-skool, alone. Dib had texted him he couldn't go that day with him, so he had to do the way all by himself. Dull, boring, he considered not going all together, but he imagined Dib would come by lunch, and he couldn't miss it for the world. 

So when he was walking, barely paying attention around, he couldn't hear the roar of a loud car until it was too late, and he was splashed with dirty, polluted street water. It made his skin sizzle and a soaring pain all over his right side, as he heard cackling laughing from the leeches. 

"Hey, fag! Watch out!" the bigger one said, dressed in pristine ML uniform, cheered by two other companions in a four seater car. 

The girl by his side pointing at him with a perfectly manicured nail, and another similar strawberry blonde echoing. The car rushed down the street in direction to the prestigious skool, and Zim could have sworn he saw Dib's cowlick in the fourth seat, if it wasn't because one of his fucking eyes was melting. 

"I'm sorry. I couldn't stop them, I didn't know they were doing that '' Dib texted him two hours later, while Zim was still sitting on a bathroom stall, as his eye was being fixed by the nanobots. 

He looked tiredly at the screen, and decided to ignore the apologies, while writing back: 

"What does "fag" mean?"

Dib didn't answer back. 

**

"Computer, keep looking. I still need to find the word" he instructed when he was back at his base, taking a whole different route to avoid Dib and his texts. 

But it was not about the impossibility of Computer finding the word. It was on the contrary, that he did find it, but he wasn't about to let his master be hurt by it, no matter how annoying or obnoxious he was. Humans were trash. 

"Fag: a group of small twigs tied up together with a string" he repeated, as Zim paced around the place. 

"Does it have an additional meaning? A figured speech?" 

"No figured speech found." 

Zim looked at his phone, buzzing still with Dib's apologies, and he sighed. 

"I grow tired of your nonsense words, come to my base already" he wrote back, willing to be the bigger person there. 

"I can't, sorry. I'm with visits" 

There were a few more puzzling texts after that that went on like this: 

"Wg"   
"666dsd"   
"hhfda"   
"kiihhh" 

Finally, a photo attachment. 

A cheer-leader kissing a reluctant Dib's lips, as he was squeezing his eyes closed. 

She seemed far too smug, smearing all the pink of her glossy lips over his mate's mouth. It revolted Zim to understand the newly found strawberry flavor's source. 

Not even five minutes later he was getting new texts.

"SORRY"  
"NOT WHAT IT SEEMS"   
"NOT TRUE, IT WASN'T"  
"ZIM PLEASE TALK TO ME"   
"I'M GOING TO YOUR HOME"   
"Zim im here please open I’m here it wasn't what it looked like"

Zim was on the roof, hugging his legs to his chest, and looking down at the human trying to get in. His uniform was all messed up, his hair totally ruffled, and pink glossy marks all over his face and clothes.

"ZIm! please, open up! She did that, I didn't want to...! I'm sorry, Zim, please!" 

It was a few minutes of personal struggle, but finally Zim took pity on him, and threw a pebble to his side, catching his attention. Dib seemed elated, and rushed to climb his base from the place he always knew, until he was crawling to him, and holding him close. 

"Please, you have to believe me, Zim. I didn't mean that to happen, she kissed me, I didn't..." 

"But it wasn't the first time, was it?"

"What...?" 

"The scent that is on you" he added, moving him away "the scent in your mouth. It's hers" 

"I..." he swallowed "It's complicated... I don't love her or anything, I hate them all, but... Zim, I can't... explain" 

"What is a fag, Dib? Why is Zim a fag?" 

"A fag... uh... you're not one. I mean... it's not bad. It's... Zim, listen to me... do you trust me?" 

"Why is Zim a fag? Why is she kissing you? Why are you not walking with Zim to skool? Why are you not letting Zim go with you??" he asked, louder and louder, as he stood up, until he felt the power aiding his booming voice in the dead of night. 

"WHY IS ZIM A FAG?? WHY IS SHE KISSING YOU?? WHY ARE YOU NOT WALKING WITH ZIM TO SKOOL? WHY ARE YOU NOT LETTING ZIM GO WITH YOU??" 

By the end of the yelling spree, he gasped, curling his hands in fists, and waited for an answer. 

Dib seemed shocked, and silent. His words punched off him, until he was small, smaller than any service drone Zim had ever seen. No answer in sight, Zim climbed down the roof, ignoring the pleas of the human, and started walking anywhere, away from him. 

He needed air, and sugar in his system, so he went to the store using his PAK legs to lose Dib in case he decided to follow. He wasn't even carrying his disguise, but it didn't matter. More than once he had forgotten and he had passed by a bald stoned kid with red eyes. Whatever, he just needed fun dip, a soda, and a plan to leave the planet. 

As he was looking for his snacks, grabbing as many as his arms could carry, Zim reflected on himself, his naivete about human affairs. 

Irkens could be physical one another, that is why he was never phased by the fact that many leeches were swarming around his mate. Why wouldn't they? He was beautiful, and smart, a beacon of home and the savior of Earth. He was young and energetic, despite losing some of the light behind his eyes lately, despite having less energy to be around him, and refusing intercourse the last few weeks. 

But today's events had been crushing to his spooch, and he needed some time off. GIR was watching a soap opera in which the concept showed up "a time away to think'' seemed like the perfect way to reconsider his plans. 

Irk was never going to come to this side of the galaxy. Why limit himself on Earth?

He was licking on his fun dip spoon, sitting on a sidewalk, and planning on gathering his base as silently as possible while Dib was having fun with his cheer-leader, when a light, deafening and blinding started to shine just across the street. 

It was massive. It ripped through the sky, moving clouds in a wave fashion, pointing at the expanse of the universe, and then closing on itself, until it became a big crate in the street. 

He approached, fearing perhaps an experiment going wrong, a weird alien ship, anything...But he saw Dib. 

No, not Dib… It was different. Lankier, slouchier, dirtier... he gasped with dry lungs, and brushed at his facial hair. That's why Zim didn't think it was Dib. Dib didn't have facial hair. 

"Am I here??" he asked first thing, looking around, and to his watch "FUCK YEAH, I AM HERE! ZIM!" When they locked eyes the excitement of Dib's face was almost palpable, and he ran to him, tossing him up in the air, and bringing him to a mindblowing kiss. A kiss that the Dib he knew could have never given him. It was desperate, and passionate. It was bone crushing and tasting of dirt and chips, not strawberry. 

He smiled, big, so very big, and ZIm followed because he liked his smile, despite being confused and upset at him not long ago. 

"Zim, sorry... I just need something else. I'll kiss you forever, but please tell me where is..." 

"Zim!" Dib's voice rippled through the silence of the streets, and Zim looked behind. 

Dib was there, his strawberry lips Dib. Shocked, upset, astonished. 

"Ah, there you are!" Stubbled Dib smiled, carefully leaving Zim on the floor "Sorry, babe, be right back" he smiled, turning to see himself, clean and prissy, with a silly uniform, and deranged in anger. 

"Who are you??" the pristine Dib asked. 

"Oh, I'm you. But don't worry, you won't remember that. I'll just take this reality now" 

As all explanation, he pulled out a ray gun from his pocket, creating a light bubble that consumed pristine Dib for a few seconds. 

The young man tried to fight the pull of the gravitational field making him smaller and smaller, until a massive ray of light soared through the skies, and the human disappeared with a muffled scream of confusion. 

"Dib?!" Zim seemed desperate looking around, as the streets started terraforming again, arranging themselves up as if nothing happened, leaving no trace of the disappearance of the Membrane heir. "What did you do to him???" 

"He's fine. He just went to my universe" Dirty Dib said, brushing the dust off his clothes, and tossing the empty ray gun to a trash bin. "He will have his own Zim, his own adventures... probably will change places with some other of us, if he's smart" 

"But... but why? I don't... understand... is he dead? who are you?" 

"I'm Dib too. Same age, same Dib, just not same development. It's okay, Zim, he's taking my place, you won’t remember him. Just give it a moment" 

"A moment...? What do you mean...?" 

Dib kneeled in front of him, not minding his clothes getting dirty for him, and held his hands offering his arms open. 

"Just a kiss, Zim, and everything will be alright. It will be just you and me again" 

Zim blinked, eyes burning with confused tears, and he locked lips with Dib in a long, sweet, dirt tasting kiss which extended over time, as the memories were flying outside his mind, like helium balloons. Zim saw them leaving one by one until there was none. 

By the time they separated, the twitching of his spooch was replaced with loving numbness, with fluttery gentleness, and he relaxed in the strong, lanky arms. 

Dib also bid goodbye to his terrible secret, wrapping it up with a forehead kiss.

"What are we doing here?" Zim whispered, too busy pecking over and over on DIb's lips. 

"Well... you were going to get some snacks, and I would get your favorite chocolate lube" he smiled, winking playfully. It made Zim snicker and pushed him to a side. Dib fell into a puddle of mud water but he didn't mind.

"Stinky Dib" Zim chastised, dignifiedly walking to the store to get his fun dip. 

Dib followed, looking back for a second. 

"Good luck with the zombies, prissy fuck"

THE END.


End file.
